Your face in chocolate

We think in might be absurdly vain, but wouldn’t it be fun to give everyone in your family a chocolate modeled after your mug this holiday season? [Eok.gnah] has already worked out a system to make this possible. It consists of three parts: scanning your head and building a 3D model from it, using that model to print a mold, and molding the chocolate itself.

He used 123D to scan his face. No mention of hardware but this face scanning rig would be perfect for it. He then cleaned up the input and used it to make a mold model by subtracting his face from a cube in OpenSCAD. That needs to be sliced into layers for the 3D printer, and he used the Slic3r program which has been gaining popularity. Finally the mold was printed and the face was cast with molten chocolate. We’d suggest using a random orbital sander (without sand paper) to vibrate the bottom of the mold. This would have helped to evacuate the bubble that messed up his nose.

You know, it doesn’t have to be your face. It could be another body part, even an internal one… like your brain!

Had a guy come into the ER who tried to mold a replica of his rectum using plaster. Who couldn’t guess how that was gonna turn out? People don’t realize that it’s full of folds that don’t really want to move out of the way.

PS – Plaster is exothermic, so don’t try this at home. Please don’t use expandable foam, concrete or anything else that solidifies or leaches moisture. That includes gelatin and cornstarch.

If he’d been more sensible and used chocolate as Caleb suggested, he wouldn’t have had to endure three idiots trying to chisel and drill the mass of plaster into extractable chunks.

If you don’t mind local irritation, you can mold external body parts using paper mache made with torn tissue shreds, skipping the oh-my-god-it-hurts sensations of full masks made from plaster of paris.

The paint-on alginates and synthetics are the best for most purposes. You can mold anything.

A word of caution for those who fancy persuading a cute young thing to let you make a full torso body mold: Watch out for body issues.

If she doesn’t want to stand naked in front of a mirror when you’re around, she won’t like seeing a 1:1 body cast. This may increase the odds that she will “accidentally” knock it over before you can finish the project in fiberglass.

Take my advice – “hands and knees” poses are better than standing, even if you have to recruit a different nurse. It may raise eyebrows, but it won’t fall over. And really, as garden furniture goes, it’s very unique. And a little creepy.

Be careful about that, and coat the master with something food safe first.

Even tho that the ABS pellets are usually good enough for food contact, no extrusion company will certify the filament for food use, it needs CLEAN room which extrusion companies certainly arent. Well at-least for the price we are having filament now.

The most of the nozzles are made from brass, which usually contains lead, even tho it shouldn’t :-D

Print a whistle which lightly touch your lips is fine I guess.
But I wont suggest pouring HOT chocolate over the printed parts and eat it or give it to kids :-/

Im writing about this in my book Getting Started with RepRap, if anyone is interested I can send draft. Also I’m manufacturing my own filament and and nozzle which I’m trying to get foodsafe, it’s hard.